New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-04-20
PUSH THE TEDDER BILL.

The Vedder liquor tax bill should be well
coined by the people of the interior OF the
State. and supported by their representatives
at Albany. 1t opens up an increase to the rev.
enues of the State, the manner OF collecting
which is especially advantageous to the inte-
rior taxpayers In assessing New-YOrk and
Brooklyn most heavily it relieves the rest of
the State of considerable burden of taxation,
thus making the furtherance of a local good
subservient to the general welfare. The ap-
plication of the main principle of the bill to
the State at large is so arranged that where
public sentiment is not yet ripe for the adop-
ton of decided temperance measures the
incidence of the law will be comparatively
light while in New York and Brooklyn, where
the most pressing need for relief exists, the
principle is put boldly in operation. In this
respect it would have been difficult even
with fuller opportunities for consideration, to
hit upon a happier expedient.
Country members ought not to hesitate about
supporting the Vedder bill. 1t is recommended
to their constituents in a special manner, and
it unquestiOnably represents both a need and
a demand the extent and force of which it
would be idle for any one a: this stage of the
temperance discussion to question. Though
amended in some haste to meet an emergency.
this measure was sufficiently we'll grounded to
afford the framework for sound and practi-
cable law, and having been modified by its
author in accordance with the advice OF the
most prominent advocates of rational tenn
perance reform, it fills the requirements Of the
occasion much better than might have been
expected. The insonsequent and hypOcritical
veto of Governor Hill has in fact brought to
the 'front.' as substitute for the Crosby bill,
an act which, in some important respects, is
better adapted to the situation than that one;
an act which offers not only the relief from
saloon politics which was the sole aim of the
High-License law, but which converts that evil
into an important source of revenue, not for
the cities alone which suffer much from it, but
for the whole state.
No objection can lie against the principle
upon which it is based. The equity of the pro-
vision under which those who make drunkards
are required to contribute beyond the average
for the administration of all the machinery
which is necessltated by drunkard- making can
not be disputed. 1t is, indeed. the application
of justice so exceptionally direct and clear as
almost to deserve the appellatlOn poetic y;
more opposite and fit impact than statutory law
often creates. We are satisfied that the closer
it is examined the stronger it will appear, and
we are convinced that the Republicans in the
Legislature cannot do better-whether for the
party or for the people-than to take it up as
they took the Crosby bill and press it forward
to enactment. If Governor Hill has in reserve
any more sophisms and pettifogging Quirks and
bubbles, the responsibility for obstruction will
rest on him alone. But New York and Brook
Ign cry out for relief from the saloon in poll
tics, and the Vedder bill furnishes that relief
in manner which is not only unobjectonable,
but advantageous to the whole State.